the logs are going to washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture should republicans really be happy about rigging elections and has president obama really the most anti-business president in u.s. history all that and more in tonight's big picture rumble also this weekend so america's most progressive organizations will come together to help give a voice back to the american people how can you help put an end to the corporate buyout of our democracy and say no the disastrous effects of citizens united and as

the american economy continues to struggle who's really responsible for the fiscal problems that our nation faces i'll tell you in tonight's deal. it's already let's roll joining me for tonight's big picture rumble are patrick ali reporter with the daily caller sam sax progressive commentator and contributor to truthout dot org and hope national security and defense reporter with human events online and auk and all of you let's start off by talking about the socialist president obama according to bloomberg news u.s. corporations after tax profits of grown by one hundred seventy one percent under obama more than any other president since world war two highest level relative to the size of the economy since record big he began in one thousand nine hundred seven the profits are two times as high as their peak during the reagan administration and the annual average corporate profit growth. under obama is the

highest since one thousand nine hundred so a serious question why do republicans insist on saying that obama is a socialist oh. well first of all i don't know if the president would even want to be celebrating this but the big businesses are growing at such a rate and here's another surprising statistic i would you know want to be their income has increased twenty percent in the last three years from like two thousand and two thousand and eleven so what's not increasing that we're seeing is employment especially with small businesses it's done kind of a slow gradual decrease since two thousand and nine there are a lot of things that are that are just not doing better that's what we need to be looking at yeah. i agree. you're going to love you know i think that's you know the flip side to the corporate profits being so high is that workers' wages as a percentage of g.d.p. are lower than they've ever been so since record keeping began its record keeping yeah so i mean i agree with you hope i'm just wondering why conservatives argue

that he's such a socialist i mean you hear this all the talking to say he's anti-business when one day lloyd lloyd blankfein just got a seventy five percent pay raise all if you look at president obama's three major legislative accomplishments in the in the first term when he had a majority for the first two years and both the house and the senate he passed obamacare he passed the stimulus and he passed out frank now of the four hundred some odd regulations in doubt frank only one third have been implemented up to this point obamacare does not take full effect until twenty fourteen so i think the numbers that you're citing are not an accurate characterization of president obama's policies which have not been fully implemented yet he's he's been president for four years he's been as he's been promoting business and business is doing really well i think what let me we frame this what makes you do you do you agree with the charge that he's that he's a socialist well i don't think he's a socialist and i don't necessarily think that he's anti-business in all circumstances i think he's selectively anti-business i think the hollywood executives. that donated vast amounts of money to his campaign and just got

a four hundred thirty million dollar tax break in the fiscal cliff deal i think they would not characterize him as an eyeball st you know gave a lot of money to his first i mean what about the health insurance companies. they're going to you know think bad as it is obamacare is a pretty big stimulus for them i mean would you say he's made to as your body gives them rating on the i think the american medical association which just wrote a letter to obama requesting more money after the newtown tragedy for more. funding for programs and got that in the new gun control policy i don't think they would call him anti-business i think the coal industry which obama vowed to shut down when he was a presidential candidate two thousand and eight in a conversation as he has since conical editorial board there have been numerous plant closures there have been numerous layoffs because of government are going to drag industry you know it's historically fracking is frankly just killing coal i mean that's just you know hope. well actually i think it seems like we've kind of

beaten this topic to death like to be on the list you want to add something to that you know is there isn't a socialist republicans are now admitting that the only reason they still control the u.s. house of representatives is because they rig the election in a new report by the republican state leadership council the party brags about how it's spent thirty million dollars in two thousand and ten to put republican majorities in state legislatures in blue states michigan ohio wisconsin pennsylvania those majorities went on to gerrymander the constitution requires every ten years even numbered years to do a census of the new redraw your cost of your congressional districts so by the time the two thousand and twelve elections came along republican house seats were already well protected as the republican report notes twenty twelve could have been a repeat of two thousand and eight voters gave control the white house and both chambers of congress to democrats instead republicans enjoy a thirty three seat margin in the u.s. house having endured democratic successes atop the ticket and over one million warm . votes cast for democratic house candidates then republicans and quote from the

republicans yes the republicans admitted that voters want to democrats control in the house but republican gerrymandering provided there from happening so isn't this basically a simple strategy if you can't win an election rigby alexion hope now if it's ok if i can use a visual aid i've got a map of the illinois fourth congressional district right here this is two thousand and eleven democratic gerrymandering right here so i think your problem is not with with the players but with the game and both parties play it just turns out that republicans are better positioned to get more out of it now in home territory smart they these are really smart and i hit it i think it's a you know i think it's flaming but you can't you can't take a stand against something that you're absolutely willing to do yourself so should we have some sort of. federal oversight board that is responsible for making sure the districts all maps of the parties they need advantage depending on this is

where this is just because you one of those areas where the one where where you know those those nameless faceless bureaucrats would be actually useful people whose who are working they want to work for thirty years for the government and draw pension and they're not committed to any political party they just have a job and their job is to make sure that these you know holly guns only polygons to because they are democrats did this not only in illinois but they also did this in california what you're going to have been doing this since eighteen twelve and so republicans a republican the republicans only control the state legislature in twenty seven states which is a little bit more like have aggressive it's never suggested that they're going to change the way that states apportion the electoral college votes so that states that lose the states in which the republican candidate loses they will now win in the electoral college because if if these changes that rick snyder is talking about today that tom foreman pennsylvania's talking about yesterday if these changes take place in michigan pennsylvania ohio indiana and florida that mitt romney would have won the last election. even with a landslide for

a democrat the next election will be a republic well i agree that the republican state leadership council going to republicans in favor by sending out this memo i don't think that they speak on behalf of the are and see. it's purpose is indorsed this and it did before yesterday and then again to the public until until twenty seven states and in the house elections it was pointed out the democrats got one point one million more votes i don't think that's evidence that the democrats would have controlled the house this year if it hadn't been for this strategy that could be made up by one heavily democratic district in california or too heavily democratic districts i don't think that has anything to do with the proportionality of the the post numbers that were like this it's just it's it seems to me like you combine this with i mean this this is the stuff that comes out of the american legislative exchange council and and and it's storied founder sam. it was a. i just a brain fart i forgot it but you know the case the out of the american lawyer paul

weyrich bless you and in fact we have a clip of him floating around someplace that i would love to play it in just a moment but isn't this an example of how if you can't well actually let me play this is paul where he was that he was reagan's main strategist one nine hundred eighty this is when he made the statement in one thousand nine hundred and he was also george bush senior's main strategist and worked on the george w. bush campaign he's since passed away but. any of the founder the american legislative exchange council which proposed all this legislation for voter suppression idea laws and one of the co-founders the heritage foundation paul weyrich. how many of our chris have what i call them grow good government they want everybody to vote. i don't want everybody to vote elections are not won by a majority of people they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now matter of fact our leverage in the election is quite candid like

going to opt out of owning populist gold dow is that not a sense of the republican strategy we talk about how both parties to mentor and that's true both republicans and democrats to. places it exactly but when one party takes control the state legislature when republicans take control you see these laws for voter id laws you see these laws to restrict the vote when democrats take control of state legislatures you don't see that on a state level and you see the opposite you see democrats trying to open up the vote trying to save. their weeks of voting prior to the thing hope it how what does this say about the republican party is the only way they apparently the only way they believe they can win elections is to rhythm i simply don't believe that's true i think that both republicans and democrats have a different kind of arsenal of political tools they drop on democrat one tool democratic i mean voters all the voter id laws voter id laws restrictions on early voting hurdles to register voter registration i mean those are anti-democratic laws

i simply don't want it but i know you. think that that's come the hack i think both parties are to blame here and i think that the mainstream media is very protective of the democratic party historically is very protective of the house of representatives and i think what we're seeing now with this gerrymandering being all over because the democrats held it for four decades in the post-war era prior to newt gingrich newt gingrich talking in ninety four he was demonized when a grassroots coalition of conservative activists won the house and twenty why is the tea party was the in the same reason i have this here we're going to hear about gerrymandering goes this over again it's the same reason why after forty six the democrats didn't hold or the republicans didn't hold the house of representatives for two generations it's because they go crazy when they get power in forty six you know there's this little two year window there when the republicans held the house represents what do they do they passed half not to have terribly against half hourly the the. legislation that makes for the right to work for less stuff the blew up the wagner i think americans were horrified by this i think that when vetoed it they overrode his veto i think the house tends to vote in opposition to

a president obviously president obama had less than a fifty percent approval rating throw twenty twelve if he was running for reelection i think the house was going to go public and. absolutely not to run the apologist. so i hope you believe the voter id laws are not a form of voter suppression how do you know when the evidence is that no quarter of african-americans in united states don't have the kind of id that's required by most of these states for voter i.d. law whereas among whites it's about six percent how can how can you think that there's something to this the basic fact is that an idea is required to do just about anything in this country anything that involves a fair amount of money like traveling on an airplane and none of this early state id is required to go almost anywhere to enter any kind of official building you know maybe maybe the question should be should we make a better push to get these in everyone's hands but this idea that it's voter suppression i thought it was that was republicans who historically pushed back and

when clinton was talking about a national id law they were like papers please that's not c. and i died when i was talking about a national id although we don't know if i would be i mean to be something if there is a problem we're trying to solve with how do you see the problem more of tonight's big picture already or. a little worse you're going to go why don't you put the. radio in for a minute. because you've never seen anything like i'm cold. let me let me i want to know what all let me ask you a question from. here on this network is what we're having in the bank we have our

knives out. with the truth is the scientists by staying there again we're in a situation where being i don't want me to talk about surveillance. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry welcome to the big picture. another reason day of the ball much more than a brain cell thank you both a look at president obama's second term we're going to even move. even more

invasions of our privacy and monday january twenty first and then one night at the president only on a. welcome back to big picture rubble joining me tonight patrick ali sam sacks hope hodge and let's get back to it it's been one of the worst flu seasons in decades and businesses are making it worse the united states of america is the only literally only developed nation in the world that doesn't guarantee paid sick leave holiday pay or paid vacation days but in particular paid sick pay as a result ninety percent of restaurant workers don't get paid sick time seventy nine first percent of all food industry workers don't either there was

a two thousand and. five million more americans get the flu every year because restaurants don't offer paid sick days to their workers so the person carrying your food out to you from the kitchen is gone how do you on the way as you get the picture according to a new survey by the consumer or sierra national fifty seven percent of americans say it is very important or import the restaurants provide their workers with paid sick days so would you. support was patrick that require restaurants to offer paid sick days isn't this common sense don't you want to know that when you go out to dinner tonight you're not going to get flu with that i don't i think i don't think that the economic consequences of this are going to be good i think obviously president obama has ordered his public health consequences well and let's talk about a million consequences associated with more people getting sick the military approach of the economic consequences first one sentence say this started in san francisco this anational movement in two thousand six hundred mayor gavin newsome within the first year of an act in this legislation in san francisco the city wrecked up one

hundred fifty million dollars in costs related to this gavin newsom's owns her small secretary took ten thousand dollars from the city for her substance abuse ailments so that you can go to drug rehab for ten thousand dollars a taxpayer expense this is nothing to a sick days and restaurants tell me how you vegan seems to me that the opposite would be the case if you if you give people sick days when they work in restaurants so they're not transmitting their flew all over the city then you have people all over the city who are showing if it were not being sick what work is getting done that's a positive economic ok because on a local level if you pass a regulation like this that comes out of left field that creates a culture of uncertainty in the business community because they don't know what's going to happen next week this week it's paid sick leave the next week it's something else and this is wrong and that really does are these are marrying their parents and yes there is even their race coverage holes you want to have that is you're just busy mcminn up to realize that there's a special deal with tipped workers my roommate the server. she says she tends to

make about twenty dollars an hour from tips. no no salary no wage that usually goes to taxes and it's about you bet you dollars and at least it's available you know what you could make getting you know a deal in mcdonald's where you might get that it's time all right so it's a give and take it's a give and take so why not then if that if we were writing a law for paid sick sick leave for a restaurant workers so that they don't spread the disease around should we say to your roommate whatever your average. take home pay is you'll get at least half of that when you take paid sick days even though you're officially making two dollars and fifteen cents an hour we know that you're making twenty dollars an hour or so on sick days we'll pay you ten dollars an hour so you're punished half or she is and and we all get to not get sick and we go to the restaurant bottom line if you pass a law like that the prices of food are going to go up when you go to that restaurant you might respond by tipping less i think bottom line you're going to actually the price goes up you tip more it will typically tip as

a percentage of the check they do these as a result make more money if you have this this mass increase in the prices of a meal out people are going to notice people are going to realize they're either going to eat out less that's one option or they're going to start shifting their servers on their tips i think it doesn't work out well for the service business stays the same because they always pass on their costs i think it's been proven to be beneficial for businesses to act in the interest of their workers i mean when you sold darden papa johns and all these restaurants come out and say they're going to cut their employees hours so that they don't have to give them health care you saw their sales go down i mean there's there's definitely incentive to offering these benefits i'm going on both sides i'm not sure that was that was a concert i think that was a more political consequence than actual direct we can see an economic consequence here there was no he was i was blowback yeah exactly but i mean that kind of ties into into what you're saying that some businesses they might have to raise their prices but i don't know how they raise their prices if they're in a competitive marketplace and then you know that you you may end up with the c.e.o.

of taking home fourteen million dollars a year and so we shouldn't use the waves to this idea of how businesses are going to react to a new regulation we should worry about the public good in the public health of not spreading flu around you know the community that's that's the argument that i'm trying to make or are you patrick are you just ideologically no regulation is that a logical when this passed in connecticut in two thousand and eleven under governor dan malloy two hundred fifty small the. this is in the state of connecticut came out in opposition to it including the connecticut restaurant association because it's going to cost them money and it's going to result in layoffs it's going to result in less hiring but fewer people are going to get sacked while i mean it is there that boy he's a tremendous economic damage that it's going to do on a local level i mean these national groups that are pushing for this on a national level it's tremendous i mean this is are not familiar with the business climate in seattle where this pastor in connecticut where this pastor in philadelphia over this pastor does anything else on the down to us what it looks

now but they've been damaged economically based on this argument we should be applauding sickness because when people go to the doctors that increases economic activity g.d.p. goes up the more people have to go see doctors ok let's let's you're right that's the sad you know every oil spill increases g.d.p. let's talk about those nations crippling infrastructure so i segue actually you know because our infrastructure is falling apart and that's going to drive up g.d.p. to inspectors taking the first ever inventory of flood levees overseen by the federal government to found more than three hundred followed levees in need of urgent repair they were in every region in cities and towns big and small washington d.c. sacramento cleveland dallas just to name a few cording to the american society of civil engineers our infrastructure requires one point six trillion in repairs and by the end of the decade that number is going to be the reed trillion meanwhile we have an unemployment problem is this a no brainer put americans back to work fixing our bridges or roads sam so really it's really i mean this is kind of the way reduced to get out of recession this is actually patrick this is how did white eisenhower paid off the one hundred twenty

seven percent of g.d.p. debt that the united states had when we came out of world war two and dwight eisenhower was a great liberal he was ahead of everyone he built the strongest middle class that america's ever see i think you need to hold the federal government accountable because in obama's stimulus package in two thousand and nine there was one hundred five billion dollars in new infrastructure spending four and a half billion dollars went to the u.s. army corps of engineers on things like. flood prevention of. seventeen trillion this this study i think is an indictment of the stimulus package at least in some way because it hasn't worked out where did all this money go where did the obama well only a third of it went to infrastructure the other third when the targets near the third went to shoring up state budgets so that we don't fire cops and firefighters the federal government has failed time and time again the bush administration's handling of it was disastrous the handling of the drought in charge it was a disaster so if this were a public is do they have got a functioning bureaucracy

a functioning agency of government you put an idiot in charge or bill bennett in charge of trying to educate people for the record i mean what do we do about it then you can say see government doesn't work on the issues what do we do about it we have all these levees are we going to wait for a private corporation to start your own told to go and build new levees you're not going to find any republican who's going to say it's a bad thing for a government to be spending to build that infrastructure they're saying there are two things here first of all you have to pick and choose what you spend on you can't just spend more money that the government doesn't have obviously you've got the best approaching debt ceiling it's you know it's common household management right now washington is spending their money on candy bars when they few other places in the nation that is massively more wealthy than china yet china just put in a five thousand one hundred forty eight mile long three hundred fifty five mile an hour high speed rail system equivalent of chicago to new york it's running now why can't we do simple infrastructure china is just doing that because they're saying

we're going to do it and that infrastructure makes business work in the answer to your question for what we do about it i think it's completely feasible that we can have public private partnerships to democratic california senator dianne feinstein most most infrastructure is private companies to build a road nobody would accuse dianne feinstein of being a conservative but last year when she needed a one point five billion dollars to repair levees in california she appealed to business leaders in california and said this is untrue. and for your business community if these levees break your businesses are going to be flooded silicon valley is going to be flooded so there is a profit incentive it's like insurance i think that the private sector needs to step up on this and i think it's a private sector issue considering the fact that we have a sixteen trillion dollar debt i think we need to look to the private sector on this issue instead of looking to the federal government so we should think we should have and we should wait for back tell the start just building our roads are good to say to her i don't think you need to to wait i just think you need to appeal to the business community and make them understand that it's in their interest and i think they do understand that not to grieve appeal to the business

community quite a bit in the last thirty years all we've seen is more and more deterioration in our infrastructure there's just no you're says a and here's another thing is if you think that it's important for government to be spending money on infrastructure and i think it is you know something that it's difficult for private armies to be able to do on their own then that's argument against seaquest ration which is going to take five hundred forty six million from the budgets of the army corps of engineers alone six billion if you're talking about u.s. construction and infrastructure projects across the country so you know republicans are fighting hard against that sequence ration i think they're kind of running it alone right now and this is where it's going to hurt that's and you've identified what's going to be the next interesting show or whatever explosion fireworks pick your metaphor cliche it is one that is one that hits. last question of course for according to farley dickinson university sixty four percent of republicans polled by the university said that it was probably true that president obama is hiding

details of his personal history his birthplace so the question are any of your birth ers and if not what's your favorite obama conspiracy patrick well i'm certainly not a birth her and i don't think a lot of people are very serious but i would have a republican i would like to see his grants from occidental college i would like to see those accidentals really great and i would want to see how they go to quote me i want to see those grades if he had a two point eight and then he transferred to columbia i'm a. but fascinated by that i'll admit. i'm still clinging to hope that the conspiracy theory that obama is a socialist is actually true as someone who thinks we need a little bit more socialism around america to fix the economy that's the conspiracy theory you're on hold on if you say that i'm the most trusting person in america right now so i don't have a particular conspiracy theory is that i would love to find out that the president is a secret gun enthusiasts that would just drive me wild i mean dick cheney really wealthy person who wants to raise his own taxes so it isn't that hard to believe that it

might have gotten so reasonably believe that there must in my theory is that he's in it with the pigeons from the planet so you know ok here's the thing you never see dead pigeons you never see baby pigeons why whenever there are powerful people whenever world wide decisions are being made what we have flocks of pigeons their spies on the planet as you know robotics pli spies here to spy on us and report back to planets you know you know the scientology planet. it's a joke it's a bad idea to say what could be a possible tetrick hope thank you all for being with us. coming up this monday marks the third anniversary of the highly controversial democracy destroying citizens united decision how goes the fight to overturn citizens united and how are some of this nation's most progressive organizations coming together to give a voice back to the american people.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm john harvey welcome to the big picture. not your asian day of the ball much more than a break about taking a closer look at president obama's second term derby even more and even more invasions of our privacy can end monday january twenty first at the exam and bottom line for the president only monolith.